Georgio's Bistro and Bistro

My family.





Well it's actually called Georgio's Bakery and Bistro. Located at 800 North Ocean Drive
Hollywood, Fl. My sister chose this place for my birthday lunch with the family(I had no complaints). The family included my mother, father, aunt, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. Phew, that was a mouth full....and so was the food.

I feel like my, I guess you could call it review, is more interesting when you get a little background info or scene setting, for the sake of entertaining storytelling. So I must first add that my mother is not the easiest person to find a new location with. She is terrible with directions and even worse at driving. (I hope she doesn't decide to read these). The restaurant is located on the intercoastal side of A1A and if you are coming from the South, there are no left turns on most of the highway.

So we pull into the bistro. Let me just set this up for you, it's a little confusing. There is a Georgio's Grille and a Georgio's Bakery and Bistro. They are right next to each other, only separated by a small parking lot fitting at max 20 cars. The parking lot is jam-packed, ther is a guy outside w/ a food cart making sausages etc. shaking his finger no at a guy trying to park right at the entrance to the bistro. So, at this point my mom is starting to panic. Parking is terrible, so we figure let's just go next door to the Grille and valet it. What other option do we have, I don't feel like waiting forever for someone to leave. so we go to the grille and it's complimentary valet, you just have to show them your receipt from the bistro when you leave.

The place is really cute, very relaxed setting.

Fresh baked breads greet you at the entrance.

There is a wall stacked with wine bottles and a dessert case full of pastries, cakes and cookies.

The tables inside are thick and long, topped with Spanish tile.

Tables that would hold multiple parties, so don't be surprised if you end up sitting at the same table as another group. It reminds me of Biergartens in Germany. The place looks like a deli/market.

We ordered quite a few things. More foods I grew up eating. yum.
TRIO OF EGGPLANT DIP, HUMMUS, FISH OR TZATZIKI (served with pita bread) — $4.75

Ours had the fish, more commonly called taramosalata. This dish is very popular in the Mediterranean. The eggplant is usually called Baba Ghanoush. And I think everyone knows what hummus is. This was very good, each dip was very flavorful, the hummus was nice and garlicy. It was delicious.

BAKED GOAT CHEESE AND ARTICHOKE GRATIN (artichoke and spinach dip served with crispy baguette) — $5.75
This was pretty good, very cheesy and creamy. No complaints here. If you like spinach and artichoke dip, get it.


SPANIKOPITA (spinach pie) — $3.50
This was pretty good too, another traditional Greek food item. Any -opita is most likely a Greek/Mediterranean dish. This one was seasoned with spearmint aka nana, the Moroccan version. I like almost anything flavored with spearmint. Especially mint lemonade.

TIROPITA (cheese pie) —$3.50
Also delicious, the feta cheese was nice and strong, very salty. Don't recommend if you are on a low salt diet, but in that case you wouldn't be eating feta cheese, period.

STEAMED MUSSELS (creamy garlic sauce and orange zest in fennel broth) — $8.00
The mussels were delicious. I really liked them. Everyone makes them with a different sauce and this was made with a creamy garlic, fennel sauce. I really enjoyed this dish. They serve this with a loaf of bread to slop up all the sauce, this was a huge plus in my book. :)


OVEN ROASTED SPICY CHICKEN PIZZA (roasted peppers and onions, sundried tomatoes with mozzerella cheese) — $9.00

I didn't try the pizza, but I heard that it was good. My mom compared it to American Flatbread in Vermont, and they are AMAZING. You can buy frozen American Flatbread pizza at Whole Foods. I think it was a little spicy. Sorry I'm of no help on this one. :/ Oh man I really want to go to Vermont now.

I split this with my mom, but I think she only took one bite.
SMOKED SALMON WRAP (smoked nova salmon with tzatziki sauce, cucumber, red onion, greens in a spinach wrap) —$7.50

It's not an out-of-the-ordinary dish but it was my mom's choice so I went with it. It was orety good, very basic, huge. I'm not crazy about onions and this one had a lot of red onions. But you have to expect it with smoked salmon. The chips were just regular Lays. I ate the other half for lunch today. The wrap was a little soggy and it reeked of onion, but I pulled most of them out.

Dessert
Canoli and Eclair

The canoli was ok but they are just not my preferred dessert. And I still think that the best eclairs were from La Baguette.

These are my niece and nephew eating ice cream.



I think we did ok